For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
Asking a fool to deliver your message is likely to do more harm than good. No matter how important it was to get the message through, you would probably have been better off if you had not sent a message at all. People and groups give out honors in order to encourage behaviors which they value and would like to see performed more often. However, if you honor a fool, they are likely to be encouraged to do something other than what you intended.
In Deuteronomy we are told that God will extract vengeance. God has promised to pay back the wicked what they deserve. This psalm repeats that promise. The wicked and proud will face God’s judgment. They may think He is not paying attention and/or does not care, but they are mistaken. The God who made our eyes can surely see and He who made our ears can surely hear. On the other hand, those who accept God’s discipline and turn from their sins will experience joy.
In today’s passage Paul addresses the paradox of yesterday’s proverbs. He tells us not to get involved in silly, stupid arguments. Instead, we should gently make our points and move on. It is not our job to convince people, merely to offer them the truth. We can leave it up to God to convict them so that they turn to Him in repentance. It is only by the action of the Holy Spirit that they will come to know and understand the truth.
Paul goes on to describe what people will be like in the last days. It sounds like a description of what we see in so many people today. From the NIV:
People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power.
That really does not need much commentary, but I want to highlight the last phrase. There are those who speak about the need to love everyone without recognizing the power of God’s love to transform people.
We now see why the remnant from Judea refused to accept the word of God given them through Jeremiah. They refused to accept it because they were worshiping other gods as well. When they were told they had to choose either God, or the “Queen of Heaven”, they chose the “Queen of Heaven”. They wanted God’s blessings, but they refused to follow His instructions. We, too, must choose: worship God, or the things those around us worship.